Revolutionary Lull 53 The expedition succeeded in temporarily dispersing the malefactors, who like a pack of wolves had for some time terrorized the peaceful traders. A number of them were captured and taken to Natchitoches for trial but were soon released because it was considered impossible to secure a jury to convict them. A resident of Bayou Pierre, on the edge of the Neutral Ground, reported that by the first week in April most of the bandits had returned to their former haunts and that some forty others who had been driven out were in the vicinity of Rapides making plans to return.is Governor Claiborne, however, informed Secretary Monroe early in April that safe commerce had ·been reestablished between Texas and Natchitoches. On April 8, 1812, he issued a proclamation, printed in Le Courier, stating that Lieutenant Colonel Pike had successfully expelled the brigands from the area between the Arroyo Hondo and the Sabine, that fourteen were being held in confinement at Natchitoches and that traffic between Natchitoches and the Spanish provinces was safe again. The paper added that "lucrative commerce will be carried on ... now that the revolutionists in Mexico have cut all communications between the seaboard and the Interior Provinces.'' 26 During the spring and summer of 1812 several raids were made by United States troops into the Neutral Ground. One of these was under the command of Lieutenant Augustus Magee, who had been ordered to escort a group of Spanish traders. Just as the little caravan was about to reach safety, they were suddenly attacked by a much superior force and the small escort had to flee. Next day the determined young officer returned with reenforcements and succeeded in capturing two of the attackers. In an effort to ascertain the whereabouts of the rest of the party of bandits he tied the two prisoners to a tree, whipped them, and passed hot coals down their bare backs, but to no avail. In despair he turned the two cul- prits over to the civil officials for trial and burned their houses. 21 Such was the temper of the man destined to assume the actual leadership of the Republican Army of the North in invading Texas. In June, 1812, Governor Salcedo asked Montero at Nacogdoches to contact the commander at Natchitoches in an effort to solve the increas- ingly vexing problem of the Neutral Ground. Montero was to point out and Salcedo to Viceroy, March 12, 1812, Historia, Operaciones de Gu4"a, Salcedo, 1812, vol. I, pt. 1, A.G.N. ZSFelix Trudeau to Montero, Bayou Pierre, April 6, 1812, ibid. 26 Proclamation of Wm. C. C. Claiborne, Le Cour;er, April 8, 1812. Copy in Historia, O,;eraciones de G11erra, Salcedo, 1812, vol. I, pt. 1, A.G.N. 27 Warren D. C. Hall, "Revolution of Texas in 1812," Tr.eas Al"'41U1&, (Galves- ton, 1861),'70.
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